Side bar menu, good or bad idea.
-
Hi everyone,
I have a little problem.
Not that long ago I launched my new site. Everything seems ok, but I'm not sure if it was clever idea to have additional side bar menu option. I wanted relevant content to be accessible very easy without dropdown in main menu.
It looks ok on desktop, but we have a problem with mobile devices. Even main menu is a bit confusing and sidebar at the moment is at the bottom of each page. When I placed it on top of the page, we had problem with tablet users as it is showing side menu with blank page and content is almost below the fold.
I have a tool installed called usability tools and it shows how visitors are using my site.
The hard bit is that nobody on mobile devices are using sidebar and that means people visit one page and leave without exploring any additional resources.
Me and my developer are discussing that maybe we should have two main menu bars instead of sidebar, but I have no idea how this looks in real life.
What is the best practises for sidebar menus these days? Maybe we have a designer here who can help me with this and do some work?
My site is https://a-fotografy.co.uk/
Thank you for all help in input in advance.
Regards,
Armands
-
The little box you talking about.
Make a small table or div and float it to left.
When you say duplicate menu at the bottom, do you mean main menu or sidebar menu.
You can do either. Anything you want.
-
Ok I will wait to get it through. We can have a chat about this.
Thanks,
A
-
Yup. Phone will be real and have confirmation to avoid incidental clicks.
No - adding subcats into menu will make navigation heavy for mobile users. Click hamburger, click category, click subcategory, click sub-subcategory. No way someone to nagivate there.I sent you mine contacts on your site where we can discuss "boring details".
-
I love idea of including phone as I get mainly people calling me anyway. But if that would be active phone number which dials straight away, that could be cool.
Yes we have hamburger now. Let me get this right as I think we think the same. Are you recommending to add those subcategories ( gallery, prices, partners ) to the main existing hamburger, yes? And then make whole menu sticky, yes?
Thanks for your help.
A
-
Well everything is doable - but remember about users first.
So - lets imagine that i'm looking for someone to be official photograph of mine wedding or engagement or baby photo session. So first if i look is text "i'm photograph that can make your special events memorable...". Ok - you have such text. Second is gallery, 3rd some reviews and pricing. Now in mobile design people just can't reach to them and you get visits with 1 page per session. Right?
That's why i think that "Hamburger Gallery Partners Price" could work. Hamburger is actual menu as now - just need to make it sticky with "Gallery Partners Price". WHY?
Let's assume that i'm on mobile and browsing for "Edinburgh wedding photographer". I see results (term is SERP - search engine result pages) and i click on your site. So i start reading your texts. And as i scroll down to them - sticky menu appear on top. And users can click on them - in result you can have user convinced that "here is the man". So they can give you a call or fill contact form.
2nd Idea - place somewhere in sticky menu "phone" icon that will be linked to your phone using "callto:here-is-your-phone-number". So give user another way to book you.
-
Hi Peter,
Just looked up what means hamburger and I'm good now
So for my mobile site.
Do you think it could make sense to make 3 level menu. So main menu, sub category and then gallery, price etc menu?
Or Make main menu sticky and then hamburger with sub category and gallery, price etc menu?
Here is another thought I had,
What if I could make main menu as hamburger. Like I have now. Main menu and subcategory, but make sticky menu on top for side bar options ( prices, gallery etc?)
Do you think that could be doable?
Thanks Peter.
-
Thanks Peter,
Now you are talking far too clever for me
What is hamburger icon?
Also how do you do A/B testing for the site. Do you make two sites?
I'm not a developer, but can pass this onto him. Or maybe I can hire here to get this job done.
Thank you Peter.
-
Hi Egol,
Thanks for reply. I'm trying to link up relevant pages with hypertext.
The little box you talking about. Where ddi you see that? Did you use tablet or phone? I guess it might be that widget box you talking about. I'm taking that away and will place as an image in actual content.
Good advise about menu of related articles.
When you say duplicate menu at the bottom, do you mean main menu or sidebar menu. At the moment I have only sidebar menu at the bottom.
Thank you Egol.
-
Skeleton have JS to NOT include sticky menu on mobile. But was nice example about mine idea and first that i remember quick during writing this comment.
Second idea is sticky menu with "Hamburger_icon Gallery Partners Price" for mobile and normal (just as now) for desktop. This probably can skip confusing users about menu and hierarchical structure of your website.
But as i said - A/B testing is needed.
-
Thank you for advise Peter.
I just looked at the sticky option. The skeleton you mentioned. I opened page on my mobile, but I didn't see the main menu. It was on my desktop, but not on the mobile so I'm not sure how does it work on mobile. Especially with two menus.
Does it mean that I would have two sticky menus on top? Like my main navigation one and one with secondary menu options?
I like idea of sticky, but just need to make sure that I don't confuse user
-
The hard bit is that nobody on mobile devices are using sidebar and that means people visit one page and leave without exploring any additional resources.
Go to a few of your pages and find opportunities to link to your own content.
- As the hypertext that wikipedia overuses in some people's opinion.
- In little boxes that float to the left side of your mobile pages (use images and text that elicit clicks)
- As a large menu of related articles at the bottom of your page (look at the provocative images presented in the Outbrain, Taboola, and similar widgets - you don't have to be nasty or naughty like some of them - there are many other ways to earn a click)
- in a search box at the bottom of your article and invite readers to use it
- you don't need a sidebar to entice people to visit another page... just show them what you have that is relevant, what is popular, what is new, what is outrageous - depending upon your audience.
- duplicate your menu at bottom of the page
-
And this is the point where you clearly can see that RWD (responsive web design) isn't "one-size-fit-all" solution.
You have few choices but all are weird - double menu, hamburger + kebap menu, sticky menu on left, etc. But as i said this is weird. And only A/B test can show how they works.
I think that best in your case is to try sticky menu on top. One of best example is here:
http://getskeleton.com/
but you need to watch this on desktop. When you scroll down you can see that "Intro Code Examples More" is sticky on top. In your site you need to make changes to "Gallery Partners Pricing". This menu can be sticky even for desktop. This will bring more size in width for main content.As i said - only A/B test can show who's right. Because all double menus have better navigation but in reality confuses user with "paradox of choice".
Got a burning SEO question?
Subscribe to Moz Pro to gain full access to Q&A, answer questions, and ask your own.
Browse Questions
Explore more categories
-
Moz Tools
Chat with the community about the Moz tools.
-
SEO Tactics
Discuss the SEO process with fellow marketers
-
Community
Discuss industry events, jobs, and news!
-
Digital Marketing
Chat about tactics outside of SEO
-
Research & Trends
Dive into research and trends in the search industry.
-
Support
Connect on product support and feature requests.
Related Questions
-
Html4 menu system which is seo-friendly while moving to html5
I have a complex site and very large site that we are moving to html5 as quickly as possible given our resources (long overdue) but I was wondering if anyone knew of a menuing system that would work on mobile that is seo-friendly in terms of do-follow and does not use javascript that the spiders often cannot read. We need code/css that works for both the menu and for select boxes. I know few write such code anymore, and the idea is dated, but it is a temporary stopgap while we move to HTML5 when such tools are available. Does any such code, free or commercial, exist anymore? Thank you in advance as this is very important in terms of not usuing too much mobile real estate with side menus... Best regards
Web Design | | gheh20130 -
How is Single Page Application (SPA) bad for SEO
Hi guys. I am quite inspired of SPA technique. It's really amazing when all your interaction with the site is going on the fly and you don't see any page reloads. I've started implementing the site with this instruction and already found nice guys to make the design. The only downside of the using SPA which I can see **is the **SEO part. That's because the URL does not really change and different pages don't have their unique URL addresses.
Web Design | | Billy_gym
Actually they have, but it looks like: yoursite.com/#/products yoursite.com/#/prices yoursite.com/#/contact So all of them goes after # and being just anchors. For Google this mean all of these pages is just yoursite.com/ My question is what is really proven method to implement the URL structure in Single Page Application, so all the pages indexed by Google correctly (sorry I don't mention the other search engines because of market share). The other question, of course, is examples. It will be great to see real life site examples, better authority sites, which use SPA technique and well indexed by search engines.1 -
Affects of a Home Link 301 Permanent Redirect in the Main Nav Bar
Hi I created a home page link in the main nav bar using functions.php request, and this leads to the home page, and it works fine. The logo on the site when clicked, resolves the home page domain.com which is fine. Is it ok to have a home page link in my main nav bar, as well as a clickable logo which on-click returns the web user to the home page also? (any seo implications with the permanent 301 redirects?) I like to give web users the choice especially as not all users are aware that they can click back to the home page by clicking on the logo. I considered breadcrumbs already. Thanks.
Web Design | | SEOguy10 -
Mergers & Acquisitions - Website Transition Good practice
Hi everyone, I was wondering if anyone has come across good practice for maintaining websites after a merger or acquisition where there needs to be an association between two websites of the two companies involved. For an acquisition, I'm considering moving the acquired company to a sub domain of the parent company e.g. aquiredcompany.parentcompany.com. On both websites there wmay be a prominant popup so visitors can switch between the websites if they have visited the incorrect one. One worry I have is the acquired company has some good rankings, which I want to keep. I will of course manage the process through 301 redirects. But I was wondering if anyone has any thoughts on this approach or can suggest any better solutions. Thanks in advance, Stuart
Web Design | | Stuart260 -
Does my font look good in this?
Apologies for the title, but a serious point here.... We (like a lot of people) spend time on almost mechanical on-page optimisation. However, we are finally moving our thinking to our visitors and what works for them - not the search engines. I know, about time. With that in mind we have de-cluttered our content pages and increased font sizes - focussing on usability more. This is an example of a tweaked page - http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/free-legal-information/employment-law/exceptions-for-unfair-dismissal.html This is an un-tweaked page - http://www.compactlaw.co.uk/agency-agreement.html Which do you prefer to read/look at??
Web Design | | dexm100 -
Is it a good idea to use sub-domains?
Hello everyone! I have a question about whether we should be using sub-domains. We are currently in the process of redesigning our site so this would be the time to do it. We are a reseller of brand name IT equipment (servers, storage, etc...) should we create a sub-domain for each brand for example: hp.domain.com dell.domain.com or should we just use folders instead like: domain.com/hp domain.com/dell does one have any more SEO value than the other? Thank you!
Web Design | | igor.pinchevskiy0 -
Implementing a new Nav Bar: Best practice, SEO benefit, your suggestions?
Hi Mozland, We are going to have a new Nav Bar for our site built from the horror that we currently have to up with. We want to make it a simple affair, similar to The Guardian two-tier Nav Bar - main menu which will drop down to the 2nd tier according to what you clicked on in tier one. Regular stuff, I think. Any suggestions, from your experience, about how best to implement this, what to include, what not to do, what can be included and done to make it as best it can be to get people to peruse our site as easily as possible? Thanks
Web Design | | Martin_S0 -
Hiding Links Under A Tab As Good As Anything Else And More Attractive?
I'm working with a site that finds standard linking to spread authority to interior pages ugly. Here's what they don't like: footers tag clouds sidebar lists of links text heavy paragraphs with links a gallery of images with alt text/links So, I'm looking for other ways to link from their homepage to these less prominent pages inside the site. Here are my two questions: 1. Would something like this work, with the links under the "Specs" tab (p.s., this is just a random example and not my client): http://www.goincase.com/products/detail/CL57925/ 2. Any other ideas for spreading the authority via links from their homepage and other pages on the site to less powerful pages? Thanks! Best...Mike
Web Design | | 945010